Daily Archives: July 23, 2013

✔ Joseph Légaré was born on March 10, 1795, in Quebec City and passed away on June 21, 1855. He was a painter and glazier, artist, seigneur and political figure in Lower Canada. He was the eldest son in a family of six children.

The Martyrdom of Fathers Brébeuf and Lalemant (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

He was the first landscape artist of French-Canadian origin, and in 1833, Légaré opened his own gallery in Quebec City, the first art gallery in Canada; it closed two years later.

Légaré painted a number of works depicting the “customs of North American Indians“. However, some of his more memorable works include: First Monastery of the Ursulines at Quebec, Memorials of the Jesuits of New France, The Martyrdom of Brothers Brebeuf and Lalement and The Battle of Sainte-Foy.

The 1980 film A Québécois Rediscovered: Joseph Légaré 1795-1855 was made about his life.

✔ Next. let me tell you about John Goodwin Lyman.

John Goodwin Lyman was born on 29 September 1886, and passed away at age 80 on 26 May 1967. He was a Canadian modernist painter active largely in Montreal. In the 1930s. He founded the Contemporary Art Society in 1939. Stylistically, he opposed both the Group of Seven and the Canadian Group of Painters, painting in a more “refined” style influenced by the School of Paris.

In 1938 Lyman began to gather Montreal painters who were disillusioned with the Canadian Group and The Group of Seven, and in December of that year they exhibited together as The Eastern Group of Painters.

There are often suggestions that hospitals, Medicare, and other public services in Canada should be financed by Federal lotteries, as they are in Ireland (Eire) and other countries. There are a number of precedents for public lotteries in Canada. Many of the United Empire Loyalists drew their holdings from a hat, as did the early settlers of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and Edmonton, Alberta.

The most spectacular lottery for land was in Prince Edward Island and it took place in London, England, on July 23, 1767. The results were not satisfactory because many of the people who received holdings in Prince Edward Island never went there. One of its worst problem for years was “absentee” landlords. If it had not been for the lottery, however, Prince Edward Island might have been a feudal kingdom, ruled by lords, with its people living little better than serfs.

When Prince Edward Island was ceded to Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. It was placed under Nova Scotia. The Earl of Egmont, First Lord of the Admiralty, asked King George III to grant him the island forever! He proposed to be the “Lord Paramount” while under him there would be 40 “Capital Lords,” 400 “Lords of the Manor,” and 800 “freeholders.” The lords would have castles, surrounded by moats, and the castles would be armed with cannons, capable of firing four pound balls. If there was any danger, the castle being attacked would fire its cannon; this would be heard by the next castle which would also fire, and so on around the island until everyone had been alerted. The Earl of Egmont claimed that the entire island could be armed in fifteen minutes!

King George referred the matter to the Board of Trade and Plantations, which turned down Egmont’s request as being adverse to the principles of settlement in the other colonies. Instead, it was decided to hold the lottery and divide Prince Edward Island among people who had claims for military or other public service. One of the lucky winners of the lottery, Captain Walter Patterson, became the first governor.